Illegal abortions: woman quack held in Mansa

In a raid on a illegal private clinic on Wednesday, a team from the Mansa health department arrested a woman here who pretended to examine pregnant women as doctor. The suspect, Kailash Kaur, is a widow who ran the clinic from her home without having any recognised medical qualification or certificate. From the clinic, the team seized some surgical tools used in performing illegal abortions.

All ultrasound-sonography machines in the district are monitored online from the office of the civil surgeon. "We plan to catch the suspects red handed," said civil surgeon Mansa Dr Baldev Singh Sahota.

"We sent our computer operator as decoy patient to the clinic along with our two doctors, who asked the woman to abort the operator's child," said Dr Sahota. "The suspect first advised her costly medicine that would have caused internal bleeding before operation. We sealed the section that she had converted into operating room."

Investigating officer Gurpal Singh confirmed that Kailash Kaur lived alone since the death of her husband and a son a few years ago. "She did illegal abortions at the clinic," he said. A case has been registered."